This invention relates to a high-low plush knitwear which comprises a base fabric having a plurality of stitch courses knitted with at least one first ground yarn, and at least one plush yarn bound into said base fabric, wherein said base fabric has at least one first portion with plush loops formed by said at least one plush yarn being bound into said first portion, and at least one second portion without having plush loops being formed by said plush yarn.
This invention further relates to a method of making such high/low fabrics on a knitting machine with knitting elements having hooks and first and second sinkers associated therewith in pairs and adapted to be advanced and retracted transverse to the knitting elements, to which sinkers ground and plush yarns are fed for forming ground and plush yarn stitches and the plush yarn loops, wherein the ground yarn is firstly laid into the hooks of the raised knitting elements in a first system section, and is preformed into ground yarn loops over sinker edges of the first sinkers by following lowering of these knitting elements, wherein at least one plush yarn is laid into the hooks of selected knitting elements raised again in a second system section lying after the first system section in the knitting direction, and is preformed over sinker edges of the second sinkers into plush yarn loops by lowering these knitting elements, wherein then the knitting elements are lowered to the knock-over position for forming stitches of the ground and plush yarn in a third system section lying after the second system section in the knitting direction, and wherein no plush yarn is laid into the hooks of a plurality of directly adjacent knitting elements for making high/low patterns.
This invention further relates to a knitting machine for making the above mentioned high/low plush fabrics. Such a knitting normally has a needle carrier, in which knitting elements for forming ground and plush yarn loop stitches are movably mounted, at least one ground yarn guide for feeding a ground yarn, at least one plush yarn guide for feeding a plush yarn, a sinker carrier in which first and second sinkers are movably mounted, arranged in pairs, for controlling the stitch formation, wherein the first sinkers have edges for preforming ground yarn loops and the second sinkers have edges for preforming plush yarn loops, and at least one cam system arrangement associated with at least one of the yarn guides for controlling the knitting elements and sinkers, wherein the cam system arrangement comprises a first system section for laying the ground yarn into the hooks of the raised knitting elements and for subsequent lowering of these knitting elements for preforming ground yarn loops over the edges of the first sinkers, a second system section lying after the first system section in the knitting direction for laying the plush yarn into the hooks of selected knitting elements raised again and for subsequent lowering of these knitting elements for preforming the plush yarn loops over the edges of the second sinkers and a third system section lying after the second system section in the knitting direction for lowering the knitting elements into a knock-over position for forming stitches from the ground and plush yarns.
The expression high-low plush knitwear usually means a knitwear which has at least one zone or portion consisting of plurality of adjacent stitch wales with long (high) plush loops worked in and at least one zone or portion consisting of a plurality of adjacent stitch wales having no plush loops or at most very short (low) plush loops. The production of such goods is effected for example simply by laying no plush yarns into the associated knitting needles in accordance with a pattern, in the zones which are to have no plush loops. The plush yarns therefore form continuous floats, i.e. floating loops in these zones, which are cut off and removed in the customary subsequent cropping operation, while the resultant plush yarn loops in the zones with worked-in plush yarns are cut open and the desired cut plush loops are thereby formed. The finished plush knitwear therefore has high zones with plush loops and low zones without plush loops, in which the usually smooth ground knitting is visible, formed by the plain knitted construction of the base or ground fabric. Alternatively, it would be possible to work the plush yarns into the stitches together with the ground yarn in the zones without plush loops.
In order to make such high-low plush knitwear the methods and apparatuses of the kind initially referred to in particular are known (DE 3 145 307 A1, DE 4 033 735 A1, DE 195 05 646 A1). In use thereof the knitting needles and sinkers are so controlled relative to one another that ground yarn loops are preformed in a first system section of the knitting machine, preferably with all knitting needles, and in a subsequent system section plush yarns loops selected optionally in accordance with a pattern, are preformed and only then all knitting needles are moved to a knock-over position for the stitch formation. Alternatively, it is also known initially to lay the ground yarn only into the sinker throats and to leave it in these also during the formation of the plush yarn loops (EP 0 295 703 C2).
It would be possible with a useful development of this principle to incorporate at least one further ground yarn in the smooth plain ground fabric of the described plush fabric, e.g. with a 1:1 float pattern (DE 3 927 815 A1). However, it is alternatively also possible to provide other float patterns, e.g. with the knitting construction 2:1, 3:1, etc. or otherwise as the float pattern. A particular advantage of this kind of method is that no partial courses (sub-courses) result and even with coloured patterning a so-called full plush knitwear can always be produced, in which each stitch within a stitch course is provided with plush loops.
The object aimed at with the described ground fabric produced from at least two ground yarns is to make the plush fabric more secure against laddering and more mechanically stable, than would be with use of pure plain knitting. The optical appearance of the ground knitting in the low zones is generally less important and subservient to the desired properties of the knitting.
In the use of other know methods for making plush fabrics only those knitting needles are raised under system control which are also intended to take the plush yarn. In order to avoid both the plush and the ground yarns floating in the low zones having no plush yarn, those knitting needles which receive no plush yarn in accordance with the pattern are so controlled that either these needles only receive the ground yarn or the ground yarn is bound at least partially into the ground fabric in the low zones with various tuck and/or float patterns (e.g. DE 3 024 705 A1). This leads in the first place to the formation of sub-courses, which is undesirable in principle and in the second place to a fabric which indeed has a higher plush density but which has an optically less satisfactory appearance in the presence of low zones of greater width.